Probe

In China you either want to fly one day trips, or work for Shenzhen Air. I stayed at the same hotels as China Southern, China Eastern, Spring, Lucky Air, West Air, TIanjin, Hainan Air, and Sichuan. Maybe a few others. A lot of them are "CAAC" government owned and operated crew hotels.

I stayed in 2 Shenzhen Airline hotels. Harbin and Guangzhou. They were OK. A couple of their pilots I talked to confirmed this.

OceanicPilot

Those were/are the two nicest hotels in their system. Don't judge a book by its cover. I forked over my own money for a room in a hotel across town in Nanning it was so disgusting. When I left Shenzhen the Guangzhou hotel was supposed to be switched to the CAAC hotel being built in the near future. If its like anything else in China the building will go up in 3 moths and them fall over next year.

scambo1

Amazing : New apartment building tips over in China - YouTube

One tidbit I've picked up from our FAs is that in the Chinese hotel TVs there are always some pixels missing. They swear it is a video camera inside the TV. More than once I've heard that if you cover the missing pixels with a towel, the maid will be knocking on your door quickly.

Thoughts?

Probe

OK. Back to my original recommendation.

If you want to work China, only Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, or Guangzhou.

At an airline that does mostly 1 days trips.

You should hear how they clean the carpets in Chinese hotels. Too much thread creep.

atpcliff

Some comments based on ads I have seen:

Top -320 capt pay $20K/month. Lowest was $12K on a postal contract...have NO idea how they can pay that low. Some of the -320 capt jobs offer a company paid upgrade to -330 capt within one year.
Top -190 capt pay $18.5/month, with a company paid upgrade to -320 capt in one year.
Top -145/-170/-175 capt pay $15/month, with a company paid upgrade to -320 capt in one year.
You used to have to live in China. Now they are advertising ALL kinds of different commuting schedules. Some ads even state that their scheduler will work with you to set up your own commuting schedule. I believe at least one Chinese airlines has some US/Canadian bases.

Some of the -320 capt jobs are now saying last flown within 5 years. PIC and total mins have gone down.

CRJ jobs are harder to come by. Have not seen any FO China jobs.

cliff
One of my friends learned Mandarin, moved there, married a Chinese girl, and loves it. I personally really like Hong Kong, and would also like Shanghai if it wasn't for the horrible air pollution (HKG also has air pollution problems, but not as bad as PVG).

Probe

Reality check.

20k a month. Some, yes. A few even better with overtime. But if you are med down for 2-8 months of the year, how much did you make per month? I believe 12 of our 15 expats pilots last year lost at least 2 months pay for "medical". One lost 7 or 8 months.

320-330.

Sichuan Airlines - has been done it at least once.
Hainan Airines - last I heard (July), all 8 failed their checkrides.
Tianjin Airlines - promising it for over a year, don't an A330 in stock.
BCA - Promising it for 3 years, don't have an A330 in stock
Air China - I don't know but if anybody has done it they are still an FO.
Sorry, #2 Captain. Not PIC

190-320

Tianjin Airlines only - No one has done it.

5 years out of type/cockpit? We had one of those. He came, he left. He quit another job because of the job offer here. The 22 year olds in the Foreign Pilot Office said yes. The CAAC said no. He was here less than 2 weeks.

In reality, yes you can make 18-20k a month, most months on a 320 or 737 in China. That is all you can reasonably expect, IF you get the job. The rest are a combination of "pipe dreams" of the pilots running the airlines, and a carrot to hold out in front of you to get you to apply.

Foreign bases? Yes, but that mostly means you will deadhead to PEK or PVG, and then fly for your 6/2 rotation, then deadhead home. Chinese pilots get a huge premium for international trips. Double pay. Some maybe better. You won't be seeing a lot of Paris in the summer. You will be flying what the Chinese don't want to fly. Same same most expat jobs.

Air China started foreign bases maybe 3 years ago. The expats just flew to China and then back home. I think it lasted 6 months, and the Chinese pilots bi&%$#ed. The Chinese pilots won. Of course. It is their company, we are just hired guns for a couple of years.

Most of the expats pilots I know in China wished we lived and worked in Hong Kong.

DjHubberts

Careful with some of the advertised 'montly ' rates. At least one company that I know of lumps all their payments together, then gives a 12 month average pay. That way it looks like their contract is higher paid, even thought the contract terms are really the same. They just build the yearly bonus into the monthly average rate.

Probe

I would also go with Parc as an agent. They pay on the 25 of the month, before you finish your month of work. The chinese have a bad habit of paying late. Most, if not all, of the other agencies pay only after the airline pays them. This was an issue with a couple of pilots. No pay, no worky.

Wasinc probably has the most experience in getting you the job. They would be a close second. The rest are complete wankers. I would not work any job in China, unless they were represented by one of those two agencies.

Tianjin and West Air are trying to push some agency called APAS. They tried to recruit a couple of us. They were clueless. It is probably a friend or relative of some high ranking pilot at one of these two airlines.

DjHubberts

So you are saying there is a reason that the crew hotels all provide the disposable slippers.... guess throw away slippers are cheaper than a dozen industrial strength vacuum cleaners

aafurloughee

Curious, I have about 10000+ TT, 2500 TT of A320 of which 1500 is PIC. But I have not flown 320 in a decade. I have a recall opp with AA and an opportunity to bid the 319. Question is with my past exp and now being current and qualified, albeit in the right seat, would I qualify for a DEC slot??

Thanks, just planning for future possibilities.